1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a maintenance device that performs maintenance for a liquid ejection head provided in a liquid ejection apparatus such as a printer, and to a liquid ejection apparatus including the maintenance device.
2. Related Art
A typical inkjet type printer (hereinafter, referred to as a “printer”), which is a type of a liquid ejection apparatus, includes a recording head. The recording head is a liquid ejection head having nozzles for ejecting ink, or liquid. The recording head eject ink from the nozzles toward a target, thereby performing printing. In such a printer, If ejection of ink through the nozzles of the recording head is suspended for an extended period of time, ink may become viscous or fixed in the nozzle and thus clog the nozzles. Conventional printers are therefore provided with a maintenance device that performs maintenance of the recording head.
Japanese Patent No. 3155871 discloses a maintenance device that performs suction cleaning on a recording head including a plurality of nozzle groups through which different types of ink is ejected. The device selectively performs the suction cleaning on each of the nozzle groups. The device includes a cap and a suction portion. The cap is movable between a contact position, where the cap contacts the nozzle forming surface of the recording head to encompass one of the nozzle groups, and a non-contact position, where the cap is separated from the contact position. The suction portion is capable of applying suction to the interior of the cap. The cap has a plurality of cap portions. When the cap is at the contact position, each cap portion encompass one of the nozzle groups, so that the nozzle row is separated from the other nozzle groups. The suction portion is capable of separately applying suction to the interior of each cap portion. A switching valve device is provided between each cap portion and the suction portion. When a suction actuator that corresponds to the cap portion to be subjected to suction is driven, the corresponding switching valve device performs draws ink from the corresponding one of the nozzle rows.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-30507 discloses a maintenance device having wiper members. Each wiper member corresponds to one of nozzle rows, each of which includes a plurality of nozzle groups. A plurality of wiper carriers, each corresponding to one of the wiper members, and lead screws, each corresponding to one of the wiper carriers. When the corresponding lead screw is rotated, each wiper carrier moves along a wiping direction. That is, a wiper selecting actuator is formed by the wiper carriers and lead screws. Therefore, when wiping selected one of the nozzle rows, the wiper member that corresponds to the selected nozzle row is moved as the corresponding lead screw is driven.
In each of the maintenance devices disclosed in Japanese Patent 3155871 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-30507, the actuator for selective suction and the actuator for selective wiping are provided separately, and these actuators perform selections independently. This complicates the maintenance mechanism and extends time required for maintenance.